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Avs dealt crushing loss

Sharks pound Landeskog, then score four unanswered

By Adrian Dater The Denver Post

Posted:
01/26/2013 10:59:33 PM MST

Updated:
01/26/2013 11:00:01 PM MST

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- It's the hockey way: A teammate gets crushed with a big hit, you stand up for him and address the perpetrator. That's all Ryan O'Byrne was doing Saturday, but referees seemed to forget about hockey's time-honored code of honor and threw the book at the Avs defenseman instead.

So, not only did the Avalanche lose its young captain, Gabriel Landeskog, for several minutes after taking a huge hit to the head from San Jose Sharks defenseman Brad Stuart, the Sharks received a four-minute power play out of the deal when O'Byrne was called for two instigator penalties. A cascade of bad things continued for Colorado from there, and the Sharks went on to win 4-0 at sold-out HP Pavilion.

The only good news to come out of the game for the Avs was Landeskog's quick recovery from the hit, which came with 4:20 remaining in a scoreless first period and sent him skating wobbly to the dressing room.

O'Byrne immediately dropped the gloves to fight Stuart, but that got him a two-minute instigator penalty. O'Byrne received an added two minutes for instigating while wearing a facial shield. White-hot Sharks veteran Patrick Marleau was the beneficiary, scoring two goals -- at 16:09 and 17:27 -- and that was pretty much the game.

"Landy is our franchise player. He's our captain. We're talking this year about being team tough and being a hard team to play against, and if they're going to take a run at our captain, we need to stick up for him," O'Byrne said.

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"It's unfortunate they scored two right away, but we have to stick up for our teammates. It's a tough call, but you have to live with it and move on. It's an interesting rule, considering I think we're trying to get players to wear visors in this league. But it's the rule and the way the game goes."

Landeskog, who said he hadn't seen a replay of the hit when asked about it after the game, returned early in the second period and finished the game with seemingly no damage.

"I thought it was a clean hit -- or felt like a clean hit, no elbow or anything. It was hard, I'll tell you that much," said Landeskog, who had a sizable shiner under his left eye.

Avs coach Joe Sacco had seen replays of the hit, however, and disagreed that it was a clean hit -- and he also disagreed strongly that San Jose should have gotten four minutes of power-play time in the aftermath. Sacco thought Stuart should have received a five-minute major for charging, at least.

"It looked like it was a direct blow to the head. It looked like he targeted the head. That was the first point of contact," said Sacco, which could make it a suspension-worthy offense if NHL discipline chief Brendan Shanahan agrees. "But we didn't get the call. I don't know why."

Not surprisingly, San Jose coach Todd McLellan didn't see it that way, calling it "a clean hit, in my opinion."

Stuart saw things this way: "I just saw him kind of cutting in behind Joe (Thornton). I just shaded off Joe and fully expected him to pick his head up, but he didn't. At that point he was pretty vulnerable, but I just tried to make a good, solid hit. I'm not trying to hurt anyone or anything, but when a guy doesn't see you coming, it's going to look pretty bad."

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